Failin' Palin. (UPDATED: As Putin rears his head.)

Andrew Sullivan, with whom I agree not all of the time, but do this time, says this about the CBS News interview embedded above: "All you can say is: unbelievable. Except it's true. She is the vice-presidential candidate of a national political party. Seriously." Transcript here, last night's edition is here.

Crikey, that was quite staggering… Was that part of a longer interview? Sorry, I’m just trying to come up with a decent reason why she would be unable to string a coherent sentence together. Doesn’t really fill you with confidence does it?

The Republican Party’s recurrent tactic of fielding mental midgets for the highest offices in the land speaks to the notion that these talking heads are simply figureheads for an invisible and powerful coalition.

That these candidates are IQ-challenged underscores the fact that they are not hired for their ability to think for themselves, but only for their eagerness to do the bidding of these shadowy overlords.

How many Republicans had any inkling of how horrible George W. Bush would end up being back in 2000 (I mean, those Republicans that will even admit that he was not a great American hero, despite everything we see today)?

We should remind Republicans of the damage that Bush did to their party (or at least the GOP’s image), and ask them if they think this woman is really as great as they think she is, and to think seriously about her as a world leader and not just as some iconic hockey-mom.

Actually, I’d say Republicans had plenty of better choices. Olympia Snowe, Elizabeth Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchison, to name a few. Not that they’d swing my vote, but at least any of them would be more than a sad, desperate publicity stunt.

I live in Alaska and you cannot imagine just how much people love this woman up here.
They will just look at a video like that and immediately start to go off about the Libral-biased media, not paying any attention to a word she actually said, or failed to say.

Everyone here got about $3200 per person per household on Sept. 12th; some of it was a large Permanent Fund Dividend, the rest was an energy assistence thingy, cuz, you know, Venezuala offered some of the people freezing out in the tundra some heating oil but the five largest Native Corporations rejected it, and they are still freezing.

I watched as most people in Anchorage spent it on electronic devices that suck up more power…
I refuse that money, and I always will. It’s Blood Money as far as I’m concerned.

Anyhoo, with thousands of dollars in their pockets, delievered fresh from Sarah Palin, none of these people are seeing any reason. Someone commented sarcastically that she is a candidate for the people. That’s not a joke up here, man. They’re all like this! Please help me!

Look, it’s all very simple, and has to do with maps. I personally believe that, U.S. Americans are unable to do so, because some… people out there in our nation that donâ€™t have maps, and I believe that our education, like such, as in South Africa and Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they shouldâ€¦ our education over here in the U.S., should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future… for our… … maps?

@1up mushroom: Come on – McCain could have picked other Republican women. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe come to mind immediately… only they’re both pro-choice. That would have killed him with the far right in the party, but they were more likely to draw Hillary Clinton’s supporters away than Palin. They also have decades more experience than Palin does and they regularly attract crossover votes from Democrats.

Instead, he pandered to the Republican base, pandered to Hillary’s supporters, and pandered to those who like “hot chicks.” There were numerous better choices, but McCain was just showing his true colors and his lack of governing ability.

I’m from the upper Midwest, it kills me how much her accent is like that of my family. Is she a native Alaskan? I swear that accent comes from bleed-over being near to Canada. I can still slip into the accent when I want to.

Sarah Palin is a sick reminder of what lengths some in this country will go to. John McCain’s utter lack of regard for his country exhibited by his choosing this moron is evident every time she opens her babbling mouth. “Take the fight to Iraq…so they’ll never do what they did on 9/11″. IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11…Miss Caribou!!!

Meanwhile, the U.S and Pakistan are exchanging gunfire today. Will the Bush doctrine bite us in the ass one last time before he heads into the history books?

why do people care that cory self promotes? There are aspects of boing boing i don’t agree with at times but i’ve never gave a second thought to scrolling past an individual post that a casual glance told me i wouldn’t be interested in.

POOK@21: Citation please. I’m not the biggest Biden supporter, but nothing uttered from Biden’s mouth has ever neared the brain damage that spews from Palin with every word. The debates will surely prove this, if the Republicans don’t find an excuse to try to dodge them all.

I don’t even find her physically attractive and I’m a little tired of people letting her pass on that. I’m not saying she’s unattractive, until she opens her mouth, but how she can be hot and Chelsea be ugly just proves how blind the conservative goggles make you. At any rate, this is not a beauty contest.

And it should be no great revelation that Republican candidates have been picked by their ability to win elections, with the spin machine in full force behind them, and not by competence; from as far back as 1980 with the Gipper. Have people simply not been paying attention until now, or were you too young to notice?

@#29 God, Elizabeth Dole? Ill admit, i really dont know too much about the other two you named, maybe they didnt survive the vetting process..?
As for her being a political stunt, I agree, but you cant argue its working. Republicans who would have just as soon stayed home are energized to vote now and, worse for Obama, everyone else is focused on Palin, Palin, Palin.
I just cant understate how bad that is for Obama. His campaign came this far, through no small odds, on the strength of his positive message, his charisma, on hope and change. But no one cares about that any more, its all lost in the din of anti-palin rhetoric. Love her or hate her, shes the new rock star.
And dont get your hopes up about people not voting for her because shes stupid, trust me, Americans arent shy about electing dip-shits to really important offices.

Except Obama was working with a teleprompter on that speech, the entire time- it’s like having your notes prepared for you. Palin knew she was answering questions off the top of her head, and should have figured out an answer that was more than- omg, I’m near Russia. OMG, I live in Texas! There’s ahleeeegals swimmin’ over evrah got-blanged day!

I forgive Obama stumbling when he loses his teleprompter because anyone who was working with notes would be a little off track when they lost them. He has those answers, knows those answers, but was relying on his -notes-.

Brian Williams just played this, and I think only his professionalism kept his face straight. Even worse, they followed up the clip by showing Obama, all soothing, inspiring & coldly realistic about our economic shitstorm.
So no, we’re not doomed. However! I know I, for one, am kicking up my “convince the Mormon in-laws that McCain is bad for America” campaign to over-overdrive (so far, I am winning), and I beg all of you to do the same: find some Conservative that you have a mutual respect with, and get their sorry Bush-apologist asses on the right team.

Don’t get me wrong–those were just the first three Republican female politicians with some semblance of accomplishment I could think of. I’m just saying that based on their experience (not their politics) and roles in the GOP they are infinitely superior to Palin.

And I’m well aware of what pure, dunderheaded celebrity can do: I live in California, and crossed paths with plenty of fools who voted for Schwarzenegger purely because they loved the idea of a “Governator.” They weren’t voting for Arnold, they were voting for Conan.

As for Palin’s popularity, you should know that while her favorables were higher than Obama, McCain and Biden after the GOP convention, they’ve been cratering ever since and she now resides below all three. McCain’s Palin bounce is now a drag.

If she’s a mental midget or a threat, then why did Hillary block her invite to the protest against Ahmadinejad at the UN?

ORGANIZER: Hey, we’d like you to come to this very important protest against a belligerent world leader.

CLINTON: Sounds good.

ORGANIZER: Also, you’ll be sharing the stage with a mental midget whose only known interest in Israel is her membership in a church that thinks the destruction of the Jewish people is a step towards her fellow travelers’ ascent to heaven. Also, ‘Alaska’ and ‘Israel’ both begin with vowels.

TENN, Are you saying that Obama would sound even remotely as clueless as this in an unscripted interview? Seriously? Are you ‘turfing?

Obama off-prompter is an intelligent, informed speaker, and I have no doubt he can field questions with a broad knowledge of the issues concerning the country. Palin stumbles even when discussing HERSELF. She has said that we could “potentially” go to war with Russia, and now this “Putin rears his head” comment. It shows a serious lack of diplomacy, and that she’s in way over her head.

So, interviews? I’ll take Obama’s communication skills and intelligence quotient over Palin’s any day. Obama has a law degree from Harvard. Palin has a bachelor’s in journalism from AZ State, and she rolls her eyes when she says the word “reporters”. I don’t believe you’re even making the comparison.

JOSECHUNG@61: Hillary did not block Palin’s attendance to that protest. She merely canceled her own, and the others followed suit. If they had both attended, it would have taken away from the original intent of the protest by becoming a shit-storm instead. I can see you swallow wholeheartedly all the mud-slinging McCain has done. From the article you cited:

The Obama campaign slammed what they said was their rival’s attempt to politicize the event. “This is another dishonorable lie from John McCain…”

As far as Obama “stuttering” through that debate answer, there is no comparison to the idiocy that is coming out of Palin’s mouth every time she opens it. He does make a salient point, although the way he delivers it is not as eloquent as he usually is. It’s not just about the way Palin delivered what she said, but what she actually said. You’ve just proven our point about Palin, inadvertently, dude. Please take those goggles off, they are bound to hurt your eyes if they don’t destroy our economy first.

Guy Smiley (#44)
Um, she was born in Sandpoint, Idaho and moved to Alaska as in infant, according to Wiki. She must have adopted her parents’ accent.

My question is:
If Palin’s ‘proximity’ to Russia makes her, ahem, knowledgeable on Russia, then she must be a frikken expert on Canada, eh? Seeing as this country actually touches Alaska for, what, a thousand kms?

And we have moose and polar bears. And WAYYYY more of each than does Alaska. Why just this morning, on my way to school, my neighbour’s kid bagged a moose….

Yeah, if it weren’t for that whole freedom of the press thing enshrined in our rights, things would be ~so~ much easier for those poor politicians. Imagine, taking things they say and reporting on them to us! The gall!

Who cares????? This is really not that important to me!!! Intelligence does not necessarily correlate to being a great public/impromptu speaker. I vote on issues not on beautiful speeches and clearly Obama and Biden have the edge on the issues I care about.

If all you folks want to keep on spreading bullshit that the big media says we should care about then go ahead. For me how about some more fact or value based reporting concerning this choice.

Here is where McCain made a misstep and showed his hand to the American people:

He stole Obama’s mantra of CHANGE, but fails to give the idea any respect. Barack looks at the country (as many of us do), and sees the need for sweeping CHANGE (of priorities, of wealth distribution, of foreign policy). It is the summation of his policy positions.

John McCain is so concerned with stealing that message (and he should be, because we’re pissed!) that it has become the monocle through which he views the issues that face our country. All his positions must be crafted to fit within the frame of the CHANGE message, while Obama’s message of CHANGE is the END RESULT of his policy positions.

So what happens? John McCain prioritizes his VP choices based on how much of a “CHANGE” candidate they can be. and he chooses sarah palin. because she got a republican in trouble. and because she is a woman. he chose her so he would have 2 good “CHANGE” talking points.

and what does Barack Obama, the ORIGINAL “CHANGE” candidate do? he picks a serious VP candidate. with loads of experience. who is BRUTALLY honest. to the point where it gets him in trouble. who still drives home to his family after 30+(?) years in the senate. HE PICKS SOMEONE SERIOUS.

Barack does not take the idea of reform, of CHANGE, lightly. John McCain wants to suspend his campaign for a photo-op in Washington, while Barack Obama thinks the country needs to hear nuanced policy debate.

John McCain is making a mockery of every American who thirsts for a course correction. he is making CHANGE a gimmick, and i hope more undecideds start to smell the coffee.

Obama off-prompter is an intelligent, informed speaker, and I have no doubt he can field questions with a broad knowledge of the issues concerning the country. Palin stumbles even when discussing HERSELF. She has said that we could “potentially” go to war with Russia, and now this “Putin rears his head” comment. It shows a serious lack of diplomacy, and that she’s in way over her head.

O sweet FSM, did I sound like that? God, I need to stop counseling on Myspace while I’m commenting on BoingBoing. Obviously, my intelligence goes WAY down.

Hell no. Hell fucking no. I didn’t mean it that way. I meant that Obama was put off footing by SUDDENLY being off prompter. Not that he’s incapable of speaking without it. He’s brilliant without it; but for that case, he was on prompter, and so it took him a few moments to organize his thoughts. I was replying to an earlier comment and forgot to write that; someone posting Obama’s stumble. ANYONE will stumble when the bridge they’re crossing loses a plank suddenly, even if they could totally LEAP the chasm without a bridge. Obama does fine without a prompter.

Who cares????? This is really not that important to me!!! Intelligence does not necessarily correlate to being a great public/impromptu speaker.

Her blabbering makes Dubya’s wit seem thoughtful and deep. Seriously.

And let’s say what you’re saying has merit: DId you ever think it’s a great judgement of leadership and character that if you’re suddenly picked to be the V.P. of a nation you’d make some effort to sound like you know what you’re talking about?

I’ve interviewed people for jobs that were more put together than Palin was for this national interview.

jimh@79’s got it…for all of his ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’, obama still manages to come off as informed and intelligent. everyone stumbles when speaking off the cuff but it takes someone with a modicum of intelligence to get your point across. even mccain stumbles occasionally but still manages to come across as reasonably intelligent.

#69 I appreciate what your saying, and if the objective was to pick a VP who is most qualified to be VP, then, your right, shes not in the top 10. However, McCain was looking for the person who would most help him defeat Obama, and Palin is that in spades. Her resume is thin, but that’s actually a plus because it doesnt give her critics much to nail her on, and Obama isnt overflowing with experience either so there’s only so far that line of attack can really go. As for the belief that she is stupid, we’ve seen this game played out already. Remember, Dubya isnt a genius either, but he was smart enough to win twice, and Palin doesnt even have to win herself, just assist McCain’s run.

But most importantly, she draws attention away from Obama, which is the one thing McCain cant do. It doesnt matter if she polls with high favorables or whatever, the important thing is that people talk about her, thats what the polls dont show. Your reference to the govenator is absolutely right, plenty of people will vote for someone with almost no real experience because the are so fed up with the political process, or just dont give a shit or whatever reason, they see inexperience as a feature, not a bug.

I don’t think she’s an idiot, just an understandably nervous, under prepared deer in the headlights that’s suddenly been thrown into the middle of an incredibly intense position. I don’t think she’s qualified to be VP (much less president), but I don’t think she’s a moron either. I’d probably be a stammering mess in a situation like this as well, though it’s really the McCain campaign’s fault for even picking someone so horribly equipped.

It’s interesting how she says it’s been blown out of proportion … but then we get:
– neither an explanation of why it’s been blown out of proportion (which would involve some backpedalling, but I’d respect her for sincerity)
– nor a good explanation of why it’s true.

Instead, she has let the media bully her around. She should have been able to deflect it by steering the conversation towards some real aspect of her foreign policy experience, but it’s painfully obvious that she doesn’t have any.

Did the republicans attack Bill Clinton’s lack of foreign policy experience back in the day? Curious. Portray him as coming from a podunk state? Of course he was eloquent, so they turned that into “slick” …

The scariest bit is that when she says: “As Putin rears his head.” she says it like, under her breath in something of a whisper, as if he might be listening, and by saying it at slightly lower volume might prevent him from hearing it. What a fool.

i have to agree with Chaddaddy, how about some fair and balanced coverage of painful statements made by potential VP’s. Biden ACTUALLY said that Roosevelt was the president and he went on TV during the great depression, hahaha it was way funnier than Palin. At least the daily show covered it. Man, what a riot.

Look around at the world right now and think about the very real possibility that this individual will be in control of the most powerful nation on Earth (military-wise).

McCain is not going to live much longer. This person will be in control of all the U.S.’s foreign relations, and in control of the U.S. during the second Great Depression.

Most Americans who would vote for this person don’t even speak a foreign language and all they know how to do is ring up produce and put things in bags. They have no health care. Where will they go? Who will they turn to? What are they going to do when the bottom falls out and this woman is the only link between them and death on the winter streets?

When you watch this video you are looking at the end of the world as you know it.

Fair point about Biden….but he is a known quantity after being on the national stage for 35 years. His gaffes are accepted as….gaffes.
Palin is a complete unknown. We have no baseline of knowledge that would make us think anything other than that THIS is her best work.

Yes, ChadDaddy, and they both have five-letter names ending in ‘n’, too. That makes them the same.

Honestly, don’t you get tired of all that illogic? How many times have we heard this same crap? Biden says dorky things once in a while. Palin has yet to say ANYTHING intelligent in an unscripted interview.

What is the possibility of soliciting a Putin endorsement of McCain Palin?

He hated Hillary Clinton, but I don’t know if it was for her politics or her gender.

It raises a lot of interesting issues. Russia has suddenly become very aggressive. It seems obvious that recent US actions like talking Poland into a missile treaty have contributed to Russia’s belligerence. Does Russia want good relations with the US, or are poor relations with the US a good excuse for Putin and Co. to seize even more power?

â™¥ Disemvowelled a buddy for cheerleading for Senator Obama
â™¥ Killed a link to a hit piece on Senator McCain
â™¥ Killed innumerable rude comments about Governor Palin
â™¥ Killed links to partisan blogs and PACs, most of which are left-wing
â™¥ Encouraged commenters to stop demonizing Republicans, cops, TSA employees and soldiers.

If you think that my moderation is partisan, you have your head up your ass. I moderate behavior, not politics. If you’re rude, I moderate you. If you’re off-topic, I moderate you. If you try to pick a fight, I moderate you. If you make outlandish claims without any proof, repeat tiresome memes or shout slogans without any argument to back them up, I moderate you.

If the majority of trollish behavior comes from one end of the political spectrum, It’s. Not. My. Fault.

McCain croaks, Palin ascends, and Cheney-head-on-a-robot rubs his robot hands for Desert Storm III: the Run for Iran. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about this, little lady, I’ll take it from here.”

I don’t really like Biden that much, but the difference between Biden is that his screw ups happen occasionally. Biden does a few dozen unscripted interviews and press conferences in a week and occasionally says something that makes the Obama campaign manager slap his forehead. Every time Palin opens her mouth without a script it causes McCain’s campaign manager to reach for a revolver, put it to his head, draw a few deep breaths, and only after lots of talking down by his wife and kids (or whatever little hellspawn such creatures produce), put the gun down.

Honestly, I wish the Republicans fielded someone with half of a braincell between their ears. I am cynical enough to almost be indifferent as to who wins. With a democratic congress that basically has a big old veto, McCain doesn’t scare me too badly… but damn… why can’t the Republicans pick someone with a little gray matter? There are smart Republicans out there. I don’t agree with them a lot of the time, but I trust them to be intelligent enough to do the right thing in most crisis. I trust them not to screw up too badly. Palin though… my god. It is like they decided that GW worked out okay, and so they found a female version twice as good looking and half as smart.

Hell, I would take Cheney over Palin. At least Cheney, for all of his faults was a very smart man who was an excellent speaker when he wasn’t hiding under a mountain with his fingers steeped in an evil posture. Palin though… I am pretty sure I could make a better VP. At least I know enough to know that I shouldn’t be running for office. Oh yeah, and I once visited Europe and I kind of live near Canada. If the Earth wasn’t curved, I could see England and France.

“It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where â€” where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is â€” from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to … to our state.”

BEEDIE@109: Thanks for the citation. I was wondering if anyone from your camp would stop their little gaggle of can’t-bother-to-capitalize snickering and get down to backing up your statements. What else you got? Is this the only incident that you can find? You guys are really scraping the barrel here. Nothing compares to the serious gaffes McCain has made, CONSTANTLY, much less Palin. They are all over the youtubes. Here is but a small sampling. A flub on a point of history is not the same as saying there is an Iraq / Pakistan border or confusing Sunni for Shiite when pretending to have deep insight on the workings of the Middle East.

In regards to “Alaska-based Air Force fighter jets” -Don’t put words in Palin’s mouth, even though she could surely use them. She had plenty of time to correct what she almost said, and never did clarify. What did she have to do with that anyway? Did she personally oversee those operations as governor of Alaska? No.

You watch the whole interview and she clearly hasn’t crammed hard enough to speak outside of her prepared talking points. Here is part 2 of the Couric interview. Count how many times she says “crisis mode.” She has no business trying to lead the nation with such a narrow scope.

All flubs, gaffes, not answering the questions asked and repeating herself aside, she is flat out LYING with the rest of it. Why we are even talking about this person as a possible VP who cannot be held accountable to her petty decisions made while governor is beyond belief. I guess the Republicans couldn’t find anyone NOT under investigation to run, could they?

The left did not learn their lesson about intelligence with Bush. I’m not going to go into the theory of multiple intelligences, and how Bush is very intelligent in a way that makes him a successful politician. But, what’s important here is this lesson: Bush mangled the language, and when his critics made fun of him for it, his supporters successfully turned it against them and labeled them as elitist. They made it a rallying cry, and got people fired up against the “elite liberal media.”

So, go ahead, laugh at Sarah Palin. Just don’t be surprised when she actually gains by it.

Why yes. You bet they did. It was one of their main points against him, repeated constantly (which is all the more reason Palin’s nomination is such hypocrisy.) He just never tried to fluff anything up to fill that gap. He had at least been to other countries (as a Rhodes Scholar he attended Oxford) for many years prior to running for president.

I feel I should point out – world leaders like the US president and the VP -(if something unfortunate should happen to the prez) – Do not need to be good speakers -walking encyclopedias or photogenic. They need to surround themselves with smart, knowledgeable people who are experts at what the president needs most – advise and guidance about different world affairs. That’s the one thing that so many misunderstand about GW Bush. He may not be such a bright fellah, but he is surrounded be people that are. The key ability in any leader to perform well is his ability to properly delegate. They do the work – report it to him/her – and he, if smart, takes their advise. McCain and Palin – if they win the election -will surround themselves with just such experts- and hopefully will take their advise. I’m sure Obama and Biden will do the same if elected.

I once interviewed an Air Force fighter pilot based in Elmendorf, Alaska, and he told me there are still regular airborne confrontations between Russian and US patrols in and out of their respective airspaces. No doubt she’s briefed about these as governor, and since many of these confrontations get pretty serious, they may be classified and she’s forbidden to mention them. None of which in itself makes her qualified to replace McCain as President were he to pass away in office, but it’s a data point worth considering.

There is a lot of hyperbole going on here. Can’t we just enjoy the fact that this candidate gave a nonsensical response to the question?

And why use this as an excuse to be snide and condescending about conservative Americans, and declare most of them monolingual minimum wage earners in a disparaging tone? (#108 secret life of plants) It just makes their stereotypes of us elitist leftists a little more true. I suggest we refreshingly show our love and respect to our neighbors who may vote in line with their pro-life or pro-security or pro-religious or pro-corporate beliefs, even though we disagree?

Is it useful to go on and on about how Sarah Palin must be a moron? It has certainly stopped being entertaining for me to hear it repeated over and over and may not be accurate.

Could it be that someone who is not a moron would sound like a moron when they have to try to bullshit their way around an interview when the truth would not look good?

I don’t believe that she actually thinks proximity to Russia counts as foreign policy experience. I think her handlers have decided she shouldn’t say “no, I don’t have foreign policy experience. but I am a capable leader and a quick study and I can learn.” I think maybe she should, though. That last part may or may not be true, but at least the answer would have more integrity.

I think a better world is possible. One where the smart folks who post comments on BoingBoing are less repetetive and spiteful, and make only creative, interesting posts that allow for nuance, and assesments of people you disagree with that were more discerning than “stupid moron”.

We all tend to have a bias to think people who disagree with us are stupid. But its possible to not be stupid and just be wrong. Or to not be stupid but sound stupid in an interview when you have to defend bad positions (like proximity to Russia = experience) I’m not saying she’s smart, but certainly not as stupid as many of these posts hyperbolically claim.

I’ve worked on a dozen political campaigns or so, and I’ve never seen a stupid moron win anything above a city council election. Sarah Palin has won a mayoral campaign and a gubernatorial campaign. I have seen people who aren’t very smart win, but stupid moron is a couple steps down (think “the beauties” on Beauty and The Geek). In terms of accuracy, the comparison of Sarah Palin to Miss Teen South Carolina (while amusing) is not an equal one. I would hazard a guess that Sarah Palin is smarter by some moderate amount.

I think the real issue here is that Sarah Palin is someone who, regardless of her intelligence, is not knowledgeable in some key areas, and instead of admitting it, she tries to bullshit her way out of it. She doesn’t think she should blink or doubt about her abilities or positions, she fires people that won’t be yes men, and hires unqualified friends from high school. My worry here, should she soon wield national power, is not her lack of intelligence – that can be overcome by listening to smart advisers when they disagree with you – but that she will take her wrong ideas and ignore or fire intelligent people who try to reason with her.

So with that, let me appeal to my fellow boingers to go easy on the hyperbole. There’s plenty of it out there on the interweb, but let’s keep boing boing a little better than the rest of the interweb, and more free of straw men and condescension.

The really frightening thing about this is that she has no sense of humor or ability to backpedal from a mistake she’s made.

Imagine a response like this: “Well, haha, guess I may have inflated my experience just a little. But you know, I’m pretty sure Senator Obama can’t see Canada from his mansion in Chicago, so…”

Or something, I don’t know. I’m not too good at getting into the Republican mindset :P

But no. She dug in her heels and declared that yes actually that obviously counts as foreign policy experience, and also, COLD WAR TYPE PARANOIA, plus, CANADA. And she showed visible embarassment and pique about the fact that anyone could have dared to mock her statement.

Entirely aside from her truly frightening record as a Rove-style campaigner and executive, and her absurd positions about women’s rights, she’s a terrible politician.

first fawning germany, then rogue-country-aspirant spain, now “putin-will-comin-at-ya”-russia and not to forget “always-to-blame”-canada… and what not.
how many more countries do they (GOP) want to insult in their campain?

people around the world are sick and tired of texas-chainsaw-foreign-policy. please take corrective action.

I couldn’t help finding that funny, despite the fact that it is deeply worrying. Gallows humour, perhaps.

Palin comes across as the kind of person who needs to resort to spewing platitudes and generalisations (“now we all know…, don’t we?”) rather than any focussed analysis of a given situation that demonstrates understanding.

Obama seems to have a nuanced command of current affairs, while Palin, on the other hand, seems to be, well, an idiot.

As the vast majority of the rest of world pleads continuously: PLS VT FR BM!

I am APPALLED by the level of ignorance of this very beautiful woman. How is it possible that she’s held executive office anywhere? I no doubt she is not stupid but could they not train her to prevent these appearances that make even the toughest of us cringe.

I was on the fence about the election, but I came down on the side of McCain shortly after he named Palin as his running mate and I did some research to see what kind of person she was.

Her evangelical beliefs worry me some, but she appears not to have injected those into her work as governor of Alaska, and I doubt she’d have the ability to do that as VP or President if it came to that.

I must confess that I do like the fact that she is precisely what she appears – a nobody from nowhere, but a capable and intelligent one, like most people of above-average intelligence who work for a living. She has a few things in common with the ‘elite’ of Washington, such as the drive to win and the belief in herself that she is worthy of winning, which many of ‘us’ don’t have in us. But otherwise, she is what she appears to be – a normal person. Those who have cast her as “Mrs. Palin goes to Washington” have a good sense of it, I think, although she was chosen by McCain, she did not rise up in indignation at the ‘way things are’ and grab at the brass ring herself (at least, not yet, who knows what she would have done after a few terms as governor of Alaska on her own).

Of course she has no foreign policy experience, and I frankly would not expect her to have any. Her job has not required it, and frankly, flying around and meeting foreign leaders would be a catch-as-catch-can sort of thing, leading trade missions and the like, as governors do from time to time. Not on policy, but on trade missions. Sorry she hasn’t done even that much, but given time, I’m sure she would have.

I like the fact that she is, even now, surrounded by handlers and message-shapers, still her own person. Her personality comes through loud and clear, and her intelligence. Obviously she has to suppress her own beliefs to the extent that they conflict with McCain’s – she is running for the number 2 position, after all, like Biden.

In short, I like her. The more she freaks people out and makes them react with obscenities and declarations of her stupidity and our impending doom, the more I find to like (well, I put that down to the humor I find in people acting like the sky is falling and general mass hysteria).

If McCain wins, I hope he uses her in a significant way, such as making her a ‘super ambassador’ to the world at large, giving her those foreign policy chops she’ll need when she runs for President in 2012 or 2016. I look forward to that.

I watched the video with my teeth clenched, fearing the worst. She really did fine, I don’t see the problem. I understood her clearly.

Thanks for being so understanding. It’s just that a witch cast a spell on me, causing me to rear-end someone on the way to work today. At first I thought the only way to fix my problems was to vote for a black man, any black man. But after contacting Pastor Muthee the blinders have been lifted and quotes like this totally make sense:

“So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade â€” we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today.”

@#161: “They ridicule McCain/Palin for things they need not look very far to see where Obama faults in the same context, if not even worse.”

I _think_ I understand what you’re getting at, after studying that sentence for a while. You’re implying that there are videos out there where Obama looks as stupid as this Palin in this interview? You should post them! I googled “obama moron video” and wasn’t impressed.

My favorite part of that interview, which isn’t on the above clip, was when she was asked about the difference between Afghanistan and Iraq. At one point she starts talking about terrorists and how they “hate our freedom” and everything this country stands for and…women’s rights.

She actually said terrorists hate women’s rights. A true sentence, I know. But should the woman who is anti-choice really be saying anything about people who hate women’s rights? Saying how bad they are?

“She actually said terrorists hate women’s rights. A true sentence, I know. But should the woman who is anti-choice really be saying anything about people who hate women’s rights? Saying how bad they are?”

Was this just your opportunity to say the word “anti-choice?”

I do not see how being pro-life (or pro-choice) prevents one from also being in favor of women’s rights. If one is pro-life, one does not see the “right to abort” as being one of them. This is worthy of discussion and argument, but it does not preclude such a person from being in favor of all the myriad of other rights both sides agree that women are entitled to.

As an example, I do not think ex-convicts should have their right to own guns restored. However, they are also human beings and US citizens, and I am in favor of all their other rights being respected. In what way does my ‘anti-guns-for-felons’ stance degrade my position that ‘even-felons-have-rights’?

I stopped being able to get to BB at all around 3:30am C.S.T. for some reason, while attempting to comment. At the risk of making a very long post, I will endeavor to catch up.

WALRUS@140: That was the effect of the spin of Turdblossom, and the conservative monopoly of the mainstream media, not the Dem’s underestimation. They still had to steal both elections to make bushie prez. I agree, Palin’s ignorance and quirks do not disqualify her as they should in a sane universe, but the “elitism” label is pure spin and didn’t require an accent. They’re still pulling that crap today, and I hope the American People are starting to see through it with bushie’s track record that even McCain is trying as hard as he can to distance himself from. We’ll see.

TRVTH@142: “They do the work – report it to him/her – and he, if smart, takes their advise.” [sic] -You just contradicted your own statement. Eloquence and speaking ability; being able to organize thoughts and address issues vocally are what real leaders demonstrate their intellect though. If you think the past 8 years have shown the country to have been run effectively and intelligently, then you have the most flawed yardstick imaginable. Not even McCain has the balls to approach that conclusion.

Any leader on the national level will surely surround themselves with smart people, but they must also be able to make their own judgment in synthesis, otherwise, what you are electing as not a man, but a consortium. What EARTH MAN @11 and ACX99 say is correct. (I merely commented earlier that this should be obvious by now.)

Smart people were also appointed as federal judges by the bush administration, but when they made decisions themselves (what judges are mandated to do: interpret the law) that contradicted the rigid party line, they were fired. It’s not enough to surround yourself with smart people. The leader of the most powerful nation on Earth (albeit not for much longer) in these trying times, must be able to come up with some creative and thoughtful solutions to the many many problems we face. We cannot endure more of the same ignorance, cronyism, short-sightedness, intolerance, corruption, and demagoguery these kleptocrats have been employing.

W JAMES@143: Is the proper chain of command that the Air Force pilots report to the Governor of Alaska? I had no idea.

Being briefed on national security initiatives that occur in one’s state and making decisions concerning them are two different things with a wide gulf in between. In your workplace, do the middle managers claim responsibility to the decisions of the CEO and other higher ups? If they do, what would you call such managers?

HIDDUKEL@161: “P-Diddy’s most incoherant rant about Palin) shows what kind of people support the Obama campaign… and that folks, is something everyone should be worried about…” [sic]

Wow. Looking to rappers for any kind of insight, and then applying their generalizations to the rest of the supporters of a political campaign passes for thinking where you come from? As straw men come, that has to be the flimsiest I’ve yet to see on any discussion forum anywhere. You’re really grasping at the straws, dude. If I were to apply the same logic to the McCain campaigners from your statement, their combined IQ would drop lower than Dan Quayle trying to spell POTATO. Keep it up.

To make the leap that Obama / Biden would bring us to Idiocracy faster than Mcbush / Palin is quite a statement, given that Mike Judge wrote that from direct observations about the way we’ve been headed while bush has been in office. Please support your thesis in more detail with examples from said campaigns, not from supporters or pundits. This should be interesting.

WIGWAM@157: “She really did fine, I don’t see the problem. I understood her clearly.”

You seem like an intelligent person. How you can ignore so much to arrive at your conclusions escapes me. Is it that you’ve got some telepathic ability to fill in the gaping holes in what Palin says with something meaningful? Has she appealed to your emotions such that your logic circuit has been completely bypassed? How can you ignore the controversy surrounding this person in regards to her firing of her ex-brother-in-law, her having been a governor for less than two years of the most sparsely populated state in the country, her claiming physical proximity to another country as foreign policy experience, and her obviously being out of her depth on every interview she gives? I don’t think you’ve given her the objective analysis you would like for us to believe. I think you are making your decision and coloring your reasoning based on your own political orientation and bias. I call shenanigans on your having been on the fence at all. I think you waste a lot of words to say very little.

You seem like an intelligent person. How you can ignore so much to arrive at your conclusions escapes me.

Thanks for the compliment! I think I’m an intelligent person too.

But we all have flaws, and coping mechanisms, and one of them is the ability (or flaw) of seeing people as we wish to see them rather than as they really are. We note how others do it, fail to see it in ourselves – most of the time.

Is it that you’ve got some telepathic ability to fill in the gaping holes in what Palin says with something meaningful?

I don’t actually think she said much that was meaningful in that interview, though I understood her statements. I just didn’t see the epic fail that others seem to have seen in that clip.

Has she appealed to your emotions such that your logic circuit has been completely bypassed?

I confess (and have done so previously) to a certain level of delight in how angry and bumfuzzled she seems to be making some folks. You could be right about that – she is appealing to my emotions in that sense.

How can you ignore the controversy surrounding this person in regards to her firing of her ex-brother-in-law,

Easy, she did what most of us would do if we had that sort of power. If some guy were beating up my sister, and I had the power to get him fired, I’d do it. If his boss failed to do what I told him (and he worked for me), he’d be toast too.

her having been a governor for less than two years of the most sparsely populated state in the country,

Doesn’t bother me. I actually see it as a plus.

her claiming physical proximity to another country as foreign policy experience,

It was a terrible answer. She’ll never live it down. Oh well.

and her obviously being out of her depth on every interview she gives?

She’s smart, she’ll learn. She will also eventually become smarmy and slick and evil at the soul like the rest of them, but for now, she lacks those attributes and I like that about her.

I don’t think you’ve given her the objective analysis you would like for us to believe.

Well, then I’m fooling myself as well as attempting to fool you. Not much I can do about that, I’m not terribly objective in my subjectivity, living in my own skin and all.

I think you are making your decision and coloring your reasoning based on your own political orientation and bias. I call shenanigans on your having been on the fence at all. I think you waste a lot of words to say very little.

I promise I was on the fence – my word of honor. You could ask my wife. Funny thing – she’s a Democrat and was for McCain from day one, I’m a conservative-leaning independent and was leaning more towards Obama until McCain named Palin his running mate. No shenanigans.

WIGWAM@174: Thank you for your concise responses and for attributing your political leanings, though I think you may be a little more on the conservative side than you may want to admit if you are swallowing the McCain-Palin campaign hook, line and sinker.

As for your wife being a “Democrat…for McCain from day one” I would have to ask why she is for McCain if she truly believes in the Democrat platform. Is it the way he voted in lockstep with bush 90%+ of the last 8 years? Is it the way he helped to engineer the current Wall Street crisis, just like he got in on the S&L fiasco in the 80s? Is it the way he wants to increase the tax burden on the middle class and continue to give tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%. Is it the way he is so in-touch with the American people that he says the fundamentals of the economy are strong while he can’t seem to remember how many houses he has? Is it the way he “invented the blackberry” which he knows nothing about, and eschews technology in general? Is it the way he has reversed his original stance on torture? Is it the way he continually flubs foreign policy issues and supports a war we should not be fighting, costing us over a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives, and over a million Iraqis? Wow. She is quite the Democrat.

As for your like of Palin, and seeing her inexperience as a plus. A few things in the short time she has been a governor have shown us a lot about who she is: That she accepted money for the bridge to nowhere, knowing it had already been struck down by Congress, and still led a campaign against it is very telling. That she would hire unqualified high school buddies and fire someone for personal reasons, not professional ones, is abuse of her position, plain and simple (and I disagree that most elected officials or you and I would do this, or we’d have a lot more troopergates around the country. I think you have to just speak for yourself on this one.) That she tried to get books banned from a library and fired the librarian that spoke up about this doesn’t bother you? You don’t have a problem with the fact that she believes the earth is only a few thousand years old, defying geology, anthropology, archeology, and common sense, and not only that, believes this should be taught in schools? The fact that she claimed travel expenses for every night she slept comfortably in her own bed doesn’t cause you concern? This is responsible fiscal leadership? Dude, what kind of an “Independent” are you to overlook such extremes?

I could understand your voting Libertarian or Independent, but this stance you have taken simply doesn’t make much sense, if it is all as you say, on your honor, that it is.

Thank you for your concise responses and for attributing your political leanings, though I think you may be a little more on the conservative side than you may want to admit if you are swallowing the McCain-Palin campaign hook, line and sinker.

I am conservative, and in some things, very conservative. But I frequent a message board for former Jarheads like myself, and on there, I am known as a flaming liberal – so take yer pick – I think it depends on the company I’m in as to what people think I am.

As to “swallowing the McCain-Palin campaign hook, line and sinker,” I don’t think that I am. Campaigns are designed to get people elected, and they have little to do with reality, I’ve found. I neither believe nor disbelieve, I simply listen. My decisions to vote for a candidate usually stem from doing research on them, not on what I hear from the TV, radio, or read online – either from the candidates or about them.

As for your wife being a “Democrat…for McCain from day one” I would have to ask why she is for McCain if she truly believes in the Democrat platform.

Well, you’d have to ask her, I can’t speak for her. I do know that she is from NYC, her family is very prominent, she was raised a self-confessed ‘east coast liberal’ and she had very little reason to question any of that until we were married. She is still registered as a Democrat, I know that much, and she may vote mostly Democrat for all I know. But she did not and does not like Hillary Clinton (nor do I). She was not moved by Obama’s speaking abilities and his massive charisma – I was, frankly. Again, I cannot speak to why she feels that way.

Is it the way he voted in lockstep with bush 90%+ of the last 8 years? Is it the way he helped to engineer the current Wall Street crisis, just like he got in on the S&L fiasco in the 80s? Is it the way he wants to increase the tax burden on the middle class and continue to give tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%. Is it the way he is so in-touch with the American people that he says the fundamentals of the economy are strong while he can’t seem to remember how many houses he has? Is it the way he “invented the blackberry” which he knows nothing about, and eschews technology in general? Is it the way he has reversed his original stance on torture? Is it the way he continually flubs foreign policy issues and supports a war we should not be fighting, costing us over a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives, and over a million Iraqis? Wow. She is quite the Democrat.

Now, we’ve been playing nice up to now. Please don’t put words in my wife’s mouth and then knock her down for them. She didn’t say any of that, I didn’t imply she did, and you’re frankly being insulting.

I could pick apart each of the things you said there, but since you’re making a straw man argument for my wife to be your punching bag, I’m going to skip it.

As for your like of Palin, and seeing her inexperience as a plus. A few things in the short time she has been a governor have shown us a lot about who she is: That she accepted money for the bridge to nowhere, knowing it had already been struck down by Congress, and still led a campaign against it is very telling.

Yeah, I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t really care about earmarks, not because I think they’re good (they’re not), but because I don’t think they’re going away. A favorite of both parties, and beloved by the constituents of those states they benefit. I’d personally like ’em to go away, but I’m fine with what I’ve read on her history of using/refusing/accepting them.

That she would hire unqualified high school buddies and fire someone for personal reasons, not professional ones, is abuse of her position, plain and simple (and I disagree that most elected officials or you and I would do this, or we’d have a lot more troopergates around the country. I think you have to just speak for yourself on this one.)

OK, I amend my statement – speaking for myself only, I don’t have a problem with it. Still don’t. I don’t think most Americans do, either, but perhaps they’d be shy about admitting it.

Frankly, I have three sisters, and one of them did get punched around a bit by a guy she was dating. I did a tad bit more than fire him. Rough justice? Too bad, so sad. Hit my sister, find out what life is like with no teeth.

That she tried to get books banned from a library and fired the librarian that spoke up about this doesn’t bother you?

A great resource, they skewer the left and the right on their lies. I love that they are equally hated by both sides, which both claim Factcheck is a biased tool of the other side. Seriously, I recommend it. For both sides.

You don’t have a problem with the fact that she believes the earth is only a few thousand years old, defying geology, anthropology, archeology, and common sense, and not only that, believes this should be taught in schools?

I don’t have a problem with what she believes in a religious sense – they’re all equally silly and improbable, mine included (Catholic). But she gets to have one, just like me. I’d be worried if I thought she’d try to impose her religious beliefs as law, but she hasn’t – and I doubt that as VP, she could. Again, Factcheck is useful in this context.

The fact that she claimed travel expenses for every night she slept comfortably in her own bed doesn’t cause you concern? This is responsible fiscal leadership? Dude, what kind of an “Independent” are you to overlook such extremes?

The kind that doesn’t listen to malarkey, I guess. I tend to go to actual facts when I can gain access to them.

I could understand your voting Libertarian or Independent, but this stance you have taken simply doesn’t make much sense, if it is all as you say, on your honor, that it is.

My honor is all I have to offer. If that’s not enough, then I am sorry, you’ll have to decide that I am a liar.

I will give you my history of presidential votes, going back to my 18th year.

I registered as a Republican when I turned 18, and changed it in my mid-20’s to ‘Libertarian’. When I moved to North Carolina, the year after I got there, the state decertified the Libertarian Party, leaving me ‘independent’. Now I live in a state which does not record party preference or membership, so I suppose I am still ‘independent’.

About the only sense in which I could be called a Republican is if Barry Goldwater were still alive, or someone who was very much like him.

w.jones. 2 questions, if i may: you voted for g.w. bush not once, but TWICE. what were you thinking? and, having lived in a basically repub run country for (most) of the last 8 years, why would you want to put the country through another (at least) 4 more such years? do you enjoy war and poverty? oops, that’s 3.

w.jones. 2 questions, if i may: you voted for g.w. bush not once, but TWICE. what were you thinking?

I was very unhappy both times. The first time, I was thinking I did not like George W. Bush. The second time I hated the man. In both cases, I did not want his Democratic opponent (Al Gore, John Kerry) to be elected, as I felt they would do more damage than Bush would. It was literally a case of voting for the ‘lesser of two evils’.

I must say that this election cycle, my optimism about America has returned. I feel strongly that no matter which candidate is elected, we’ll be in good hands. I like Obama, and I like McCain. I’m planning to vote for McCain, but if Obama wins, I’ll be OK with it.

and, having lived in a basically repub run country for (most) of the last 8 years, why would you want to put the country through another (at least) 4 more such years?

Because in this cycle, I want to see Sarah Palin set up to run for the presidency when McCain’s term is finished, and I feel strongly that John McCain is the maverick that he always has been in Congress, and will get things done in a bipartisan way. Before you say “90%!!!” yes, I know. It’s the 10% he voted against Bush that interest me, not the 90% he voted with Bush. He’s no Bush – that’s why the extreme Right has had such a hard time coming on board with him.

Remember, as the left tried to paint McCain as another Bush, his own party was hating on him because he ISN’T another Bush.

I would not be unhappy with Obama either, but I think this time around, McCain is more the moderate – Obama tends more towards the left than I like generally. If McCain had not won the Republican nomination, I think I’d be voting Obama this time around.

do you enjoy war and poverty? oops, that’s 3.

No, do you? Seriously, do you want an answer, or do you want to insult me?

No one I know likes either one. Clearly, if I thought voting for McCain would voting in favor of war and poverty, I’d be foolish or insane or both. I don’t think I am either one.

So the only answer I can give is that I don’t think voting for McCain is voting for war or poverty. I don’t just listen to party rhetoric – on either side. I go for the facts when I can find them, think about it, make up my own mind. I can be wrong, I can be misled, but I do my own thinking, I don’t read billboards and watch TV ads and simply regurgitate what I’ve been told.

I am a veteran. I know more than many what war means. Do you suppose I want my nephews and my friends, who are in Iraq now, to be injured or killed? Do you suppose I want innocent Iraqis to lose their lives?

I agree – if you want to argue it – that we should never have gotten into the war in Iraq. But I disagree with leaving before we have a stable government able to defend itself in place there. I think you will find that no matter if Obama or McCain win the election, the result will be very similar in terms of actual troops leaving Iraq. So for me, that’s a non-issue in terms of voting. It will (I believe) work out about the same way if either one wins.

As to poverty, what can I tell you? I’m against it. I try to keep as much of my paycheck as I can, without breaking the law. Again, I don’t see that changing much no matter which candidate wins the election.

well, what can i tell ya, i find your arguments WAY less than convincing. hopefully , your mortgage and your employment is good and solid. if your boy mccain is elected, the next four years will make the last four years look like ‘the salad days.’ as much as it pains me to vote democratic, i fear that this time i must do it or our country will lose everything i love about it. one more thing, were you aware that mcain and his friend phil gramm wrote the bill that repealed the federal oversite that was put into place to prevent this from happening again? it took over 15 years and a world war to get us out of the last depression, i wonder what it’s gonna take this time.

well, what can i tell ya, i find your arguments WAY less than convincing.

I think everyone should think for themselves and make up their own minds. I’m just sharing information, not trying to convince anyone.

hopefully , your mortgage and your employment is good and solid.

Mortgage, yes. I didn’t overbuy, and I used my VA benefits to get a 30-year fixed at a low interest rate some years ago. Employment? Who knows.

if your boy mccain is elected, the next four years will make the last four years look like ‘the salad days.’ as much as it pains me to vote democratic, i fear that this time i must do it or our country will lose everything i love about it.

I don’t agree, but that’s ok. I could be wrong, you could be wrong, both of us could be wrong.

one more thing, were you aware that mcain and his friend phil gramm wrote the bill that repealed the federal oversite that was put into place to prevent this from happening again?

Please stop treating me like I’m a gentle but misguided idiot. I said I do my own research, and I do.

wig, i appreciate you taking the time and answering my questions. thank you. i suppose that there are certain things in this universe that i was just not meant to understand. ( walks away mumbling and skritching head.)

Forgive me for not answering quickly. I have spent all day at ACL Fest. I haven’t even seen the debate yet.

“Now, we’ve been playing nice up to now. Please don’t put words in my wife’s mouth and then knock her down for them. She didn’t say any of that, I didn’t imply she did, and you’re frankly being insulting.”

I didn’t mean to insult you or your wife. They’re simple questions. I was curious as to how she got around these issues and still professed to be a Democrat. You have answered this. I, like you, have always mad my own mind up and researched things myself, which is why I don’t quite understand people who vote a certain way because their parents do, right or left of the spectrum. You did not say that she was a former Democrat previously. You said she is a Dem and she likes McCain. That’s quite an about face. I didn’t think your wife was Joe Lieberman.

I could pick apart each of the things you said there, but since you’re making a straw man argument for my wife to be your punching bag, I’m going to skip it.”

No, please do. They’re valid points about McCain based on real events. I want to understand how you can dismiss them in your assessment of McCain.

“No, because it didn’t happen. You do read Factcheck, right?”

Actually it did, according to the New York Times. I don’t read Factcheck. I don’t know where they are coming from or why they claim to have a monopoly on the facts. This does not incline me to trust them. I do know that I trust the reputations of a few highly respected sources in journalism. Here is some food for thought for you, by a highly respected columnist / journalist Michael Ventura, who accredits his sources meticulously, and cites this event:

You say you have nothing against Polar Bears and Wolves, and yet you are for a candidate that offered a bounty on the severed legs of wolves killed from airplane or helicopter. Please don’t tell me this didn’t happen according to factcheck. Their credibility is strained quite a bit already in my eyes. She sued the federal government to try to allow hunting of Polar Bears, an endangered species, so that they could not be troubled by them as they drill for oil in Alaska’s nature reserves.

Anyone in the pocket of Big Oil just promises more of the same B.S. we’ve been going through for the past 8 years, no matter how much lipstick they are trying to put on it (the issue of the control of special interests, not the candidate.)

You’re voting history is indeed telling about your real leanings, and I wonder just how you could imagine that it could have been any worse under Gore or Kerry. It is much worse now than I could have possibly imagined it being in eight short years under bush. What exactly do you think the Republicans are doing right, such that you would consider voting for them again?

Let me close by saying that I appreciate your taking the time to have this discussion in the spirit of enlightened debate. Not many are willing to discuss the issues openly and politely, while attempting to be relatively objective. Thanks.

If you reply, please be patient for my responses. There are two more days of the music festival and I intend to enjoy them to the fullest.

phike, don’t know if you can see it or not, but i is feelin greenish. i cant really bitch too loudly as i just got back from seeing john hiatt and lyle lovett share a stage for 3 awesome acoustic hours (and 2 encores)! but have wanted to see the mars volta for many years, they never seem to make it down this far south. as far as mr. jones is concerned… save your typing finger. his kind are rarely moved once they’ve made their decision. (min t. again slowly stumbles away, babbling to self about breadlines and soup kitchens and the lack of cake in this forum)

MINT: It was awesome, thanks! It was kinda surreal going across a field from Robert Plant & Alison Krause past Rocky Erickson to Beck, where they were blending in the middle. Too bad they had them overlap. I didn’t want to have to choose between Plant / Krause and Beck, but I ended up on the Beck side. MGMT were good too, and John Fogerty started with about 8 classic CCR songs, which was good because we had to move on shortly thereafter to catch Yonder Mountain String Band. A great day indeed, but man, I’m tired. =D

Moderators: Sorry for the off-thread, but this one’s pretty played out anyway, it seems. Thanks.

Hillary Clinton did not block Palin’s invitation. Neither did the Obama campaign. Clinton declined to participate in the event (which she had previously meant to attend), and the Obama campaign declined to send a surrogate (as they’d originally planned), because both felt the event was becoming too politicized.

Repeat: neither Hillary Rodham Clinton, nor the Obama campaign, tried to get the event organizers to disinvite Sarah Palin. All they did was decline to attend the event. It was the organizers who withdrew Palin’s invitation, “because the controversy over her participation was distracting from the goals of the protest.”

The story that the organizers were pressured to disinvite Palin was, I’m sorry to say, invented out of whole cloth by John McCain. As the normally politer Obama campaign put it,

This is another dishonorable lie from John McCain.”

So it is.

This habit of McCain’s offends me, because it makes it clear that he has no respect for us. You don’t tell dozens of easily-detected lies to people if you care what they think of you. McCain’s lies are the kind of short-term strategy you use if you figure you just need to fool the dumb ones long enough to do what you need to do.

I’m also offended by people like you, who help spread lies. I don’t mean the ones who are honestly fooled by them. You seriously misrepresented the story in that link, knowing as you did so that few readers would click through to see the original, and that some of those who did would read the story in light of your misrepresentation of it.

Who the hell do you think you are, to pull stunts like that? If you don’t respect the conversation or your fellow commenters, I don’t want you here.

ahh teresa… it’s great to see you back in action! talk about a pitbull with lipstick…that repulicrat chick got nuttin on u! peace, and…welcome back/your dreams were your ticket out/welcome back/ to that same old place that we laughed about…

Why is Stupid good, if you are Republican candidate? And it took you 6 years and 5 colleges to (finally) get your undergraduate degree.

Why is Unqualified good, if you are Republican candidate? And you only have 18 months as governor of a state that has the population of Topeka.

Why is Inexperienced good, if you are Republican candidate? And your principle experience is governing a town of 6,000?

Why is Having a Pregnant, Confused, Irresponsible Child with a Loutish, Co-Confused Boyfriend good, if you are a Republican candidate? Taibbi was dead-on imagining the racist feeding-frenzy that should blossom if Obama’s child was pregnant.

Why is Intolerance, Partisanism, and Rigidity good, if you are a Republican candidate? And book-banning are ideas that seem reasonable?

Obama is goes to Harvard, but I forgot, thats “bad”– makes him elitist.

Obama spends many years as community organizer, but I forgot, that’s bad, service to one’s country is only good if it’s spent in a POW camp or as despotic mayor of a town smaller than a city block.

Can we just get to the electing McCain part, let him have his heart attack, sit her in the Oval Office, with her finger on the button, and then we’ll see the real ‘Global Warming’. Bye bye species. If America made a huge mistake in 2000, a worse one in 2004, you ain’t seen nothing yet!!!!!